Page 27 of Wolf's Claimed Mate
I took a seat opposite her.
“You can’t stay,” she said.
“And why’s that? Meeting someone?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You dined me once; that doesn’t entail you knowing the ins and outs of my life and meeting.”
“I do if it concerns the safety of my pack.”
“Fenrys’s pack,” she corrected. I grimaced, pulling away, to lean into the booth. “Sorry.”
“I’ll dine you again if it means I can keep you safe from whoever you’re meeting.”
“I don’t need you to keep me safe.” Her response came through gritted teeth.
I didn’t challenge her flinching whenever the diner bell rang. I let her have that moment without worrying about being seen.
“I think you might do,” I said. “Sasha, do you even know who you’re dealing with? You may have turned up alone, but how can you guarantee Jackson—”
“Stop,” she snapped. “Just stop it, Conall. You do not have a claim over me just because we kissed once. Stop acting as though you are obligated to me and treat me as though I can’t handle myself.” Her fists clenched before she hid them under the table. “New flash: Ican.” Sasha’s shoulders pulled in. “I lived with them before. They’re not some stranger enemy pack to me. They were—they were my family.”
The harsh question was out of my mouth before I could stop it. “It must have really killed you to grieve Kato, huh?” Her eyes flashed in warning, but I couldn’t stop. “What was it that drew you to him? Daddy issues?”
Her face tightened, screwing up, and I knew I’d hit my mark. “Fuck. Off.”
Her words were bitten out, full of venom, but I had a particular love for her brand of poison.
“How did you grieve him, hm? You didn’t seem particularly sad about his passing. But is that why you trashed his office, Sasha? Poor wolf Daddy is dead, and now your life isn’t funded anymore?”
“Conall—”
But I couldn’t stop. “Do you miss the sex?”
“What?” she shouted. Eyes found our table before sliding away.
“He must have done something to keep you with him. Why else would you pledge your loyalty?”
“Shut up,” she snapped. “You don’t know anything.”
“Maybe the busboy was more your type,” I mused. “Youdiddisappear with him for a while. He gave those names up pretty easily. Maybe you blew him better than he remembered.”
“I couldkillyou,” she snarled. “You know nothing, Conall.Nothing, about my life.”
“Then correct me,” I said. She didn’t. Sasha stewed in her own silence, her eyes meeting mine boldly. I shook my head. “No, it’s not the busboy. That was probably a cash bribe, but youwantme to think it was a sexual arrangement. Want to make me jealous, Sasha? It won’t work. I’m not an envious, territorial alpha like Kato, if that’s what you’re hoping for.
“No, see, I think the bus boy is tooweakfor you. Sure, you’d have power and dominance over him, but I don’t think you like that, do you? Deep down, I think you enjoy being told how to be a good girl.”
Sasha looked like she would truly kill me, but for all her taunts and putting me down after Fenrys, reminding me of my place, always behind him, I was enjoying this. Better her to think me cruel than weak.
“A leopard like you… You’re attractive, good-looking. Did they pass you around in the pack, but Kato always got his fill first and last? Made sure you knew you were his property?”
“I’m not anybody’s property,” Sasha hissed, but there was something in her voice, some nerve I’d touched. But I needed her to crack. I needed her to stop goddamn clamming up, and often being nasty was the way to go. I didn’t think she’d been the pack’s plaything; Sasha was pretty and liked to drape herself on any man’s arms, Thalia had told me that much, but I didn’t think she’d let herself be the run train for a wolf pack.
If I kept throwing wrong accusations, she would finally snap enough and tell me what was going on.
She was hiding things. Something about her ex-boyfriend, something about Kato and the pack.
“He’s dead, Sasha,” I said. “He can’t control you now.”
